Aviation Engines Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32.--How the Angle Between the Cylinders of an Eight- and Twelve-Cylinder V Motor Varies.]

The only points in which an eight-cylinder motor differs from a four-cylinder is in the arrangement of the connecting rod, as in many designs it is necessary to have two rods working from the same crank-pin. This difficulty is easily overcome in some designs by staggering the cylinders and having the two connecting rod big ends of conventional form side by side on a common crank-pin. In other designs one rod is a forked form and works on the outside of a rod of the regular pattern. Still another method is to have a boss just above the main bearing on one connecting rod to which the lower portion of the connecting rod in the opposite cylinder is hinged. As the eight-cylinder engine may actually be made lighter than the six-cylinder of equal power, it is possible to use smaller reciprocating parts, such as pistons, connecting rods and valve gear, and obtain higher engine speed with practically no vibration. The firing order in nearly every case is the same as in a four-cylinder except that the explosions occur alternately in each set of cylinders. The firing order of an eight-cylinder motor is apt to be confusing to the motorist, especially if one considers that there are eight possible sequences. The majority of engineers favor the alternate firing from side to side.

Firing orders will be considered in proper sequence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33.--The Hall-Scott Four-Cylinder 100 Horse-Power Aviation Motor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34.--Two Views of the Duesenberg Sixteen Valve Four-Cylinder Aviation Motor.]

The demand of aircraft designers for more power has stimulated designers to work out twelve-cylinder motors. These are high-speed motors incorporating all recent features of design in securing light reciprocating parts, large valve openings, etc. The twelve-cylinder motor incorporates the best features of high-speed motor design and there is no need at this time to discuss further the pros and cons of the twelve-cylinder versus the eight or six, because it is conceded by all that there is the same degree of steady power application in the twelve over the eight as there would be in the eight over the six. The question resolves itself into having a motor of high power that will run with minimum vibration and that produces smooth action. This is well shown by diagrams at Fig. 31. It should be remembered that if an eight-cylinder engine will give four explosions per revolution of the fly-wheel, a twelve-cylinder type will give six explosions per revolution, and instead of the impulses coming 90 degrees crank travel apart, as in the case of the eight-cylinder, these will come but 60 degrees of crank travel apart in the case of the twelve-cylinder. For this reason, the cylinders of a twelve are usually separated by 60 degrees while the eight has the blocks s.p.a.ced 90 degrees apart. The comparison can be easily made by comparing the sectional views of Vee engines at Fig. 32. When one realizes that the actual duration of the power stroke is considerably greater than 120 degrees crank travel, it will be apparent that the overlapping of explosions must deliver a very uniform application of power. Vee engines have been devised having the cylinders s.p.a.ced but 45 degrees apart, but the explosions cannot be timed at equal intervals as when 90 degrees separate the cylinder center lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 35.--The Hall-Scott Six-Cylinder Aviation Engine.]

RADIAL CYLINDER ARRANGEMENTS

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 36.--The Curtiss Eight-Cylinder, 200 Horse-Power Aviation Engine.]

While the fixed cylinder forms of engines, having the cylinders in tandem in the four- and six-cylinder models as shown at Figs. 33 to 35 inclusive and the eight-cylinder V types as outlined at Figs. 36 and 37 have been generally used and are most in favor at the present time, other forms of motors having unconventional cylinder arrangements have been devised, though most of these are practically obsolete. While many methods of decreasing weight and increasing mechanical efficiency of a motor are known to designers, one of the first to be applied to the construction of aeronautical power plants was an endeavor to group the components, which in themselves were not extremely light, into a form that would be considerably lighter than the conventional design. As an example, we may consider those multiple-cylinder forms in which the cylinders are disposed around a short crank-case, either radiating from a common center as at Fig. 38 or of the fan shape shown at Fig. 39. This makes it possible to use a crank-case but slightly larger than that needed for one or two cylinders and it also permits of a corresponding decrease in length of the crank-shaft. The weight of the engine is lessened because of the reduction in crank-shaft and crank-case weight and the elimination of a number of intermediate bearings and their supporting webs which would be necessary with the usual tandem construction. While there are six power impulses to every two revolutions of the crank-shaft, in the six-cylinder engine, they are not evenly s.p.a.ced as is possible with the conventional arrangement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 37.--The Sturtevant Eight-Cylinder, High Speed Aviation Motor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 38.--Anzani 40-50 Horse-Power Five-Cylinder Air Cooled Engine.]

In the Anzani form, which is shown at Fig. 38, the crank-case is stationary and a revolving crank-shaft is employed as in conventional construction. The cylinders are five in number and the engine develops 40 to 50 H.P. with a weight of 72 kilograms or 158.4 lbs. The cylinders are of the usual air-cooled form having cooling f.l.a.n.g.es only part of the way down the cylinder. By using five cylinders it is possible to have the power impulses come regularly, they coming 145 crank-shaft travel apart, the crank-shaft making two turns to every five explosions. The balance is good and power output regular. The valves are placed directly in the cylinder head and are operated by a common pushrod.

Attention is directed to the novel method of installing the carburetor which supplies the mixture to the engine base from which inlet pipes radiate to the various cylinders. This engine is used on French school machines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 39.--Unconventional Six-Cylinder Aircraft Motor of Ma.s.son Design.]

In the form shown at Fig. 39 six cylinders are used, all being placed above the crank-shaft center line. This engine is also of the air-cooled form and develops 50 H. P. and weighs 105 kilograms, or 231 lbs. The carburetor is connected to a manifold casting attached to the engine base from which the induction pipes radiate to the various cylinders.

The propeller design and size relative to the engine is clearly shown in this view. While flights have been made with both of the engines described, this method of construction is not generally followed and has been almost entirely displaced abroad by the revolving motors or by the more conventional eight-cylinder V engines. Both of the engines shown were designed about eight years ago and would be entirely too small and weak for use in modern airplanes intended for active duty.

ROTARY ENGINES

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 40.--The Gnome Fourteen-Cylinder Revolving Motor.]

Rotary engines such as shown at Fig. 40 are generally a.s.sociated with the idea of light construction and it is rather an interesting point that is often overlooked in connection with the application of this idea to flight motors, that the reason why rotary engines are popularly supposed to be lighter than the others is because they form their own fly-wheel, yet on aeroplanes, engines are seldom fitted with a fly-wheel at all. As a matter of fact the Gnome engine is not so light because it is a rotary motor, and it is a rotary motor because the design that has been adopted as that most conducive to lightness is also most suited to an engine working in this way. The cylinders could be fixed and crank-shaft revolve without increasing the weight to any extent. There are two prime factors governing the lightness of an engine, one being the initial design, and the other the quality of the materials employed.

The consideration of reducing weight by cutting away metal is a subsidiary method that ought not to play a part in standard practice, however useful it may be in special cases. In the Gnome rotary engine the lightness is entirely due to the initial design and to the materials employed in manufacture. Thus, in the first case, the engine is a radial engine, and has its seven or nine cylinders s.p.a.ced equally around a crank-chamber that is no wider or rather longer than would be required for any one of the cylinders. This shortening of the crank-chamber not only effects a considerable saving of weight on its own account, but there is a corresponding saving in the shafts and other members, the dimensions of which are governed by the size of the crank-chamber. With regard to materials, nothing but steel is used throughout, and most of the metal is forged chrome nickel steel. The beautifully steady running of the engine is largely due to the fact that there are literally no reciprocating parts in the absolute sense, the apparent reciprocation between the pistons and cylinders being solely a relative reciprocation since both travel in circular paths, that of the pistons, however, being electric by one-half of the stroke length to that of the cylinder.

While the Gnome engine has many advantages, on the other hand the head resistance offered by a motor of this type is considerable; there is a large waste of lubricating oil due to the centrifugal force which tends to throw the oil away from the cylinders; the gyroscopic effect of the rotary motor is detrimental to the best working of the aeroplane, and moreover it requires about seven per cent. of the total power developed by the motor to drive the revolving cylinders around the shaft. Of necessity, the compression of this type of motor is rather low, and an additional disadvantage manifests itself in the fact that there is as yet no satisfactory way of m.u.f.fling the rotary type of motor. The modern Gnome engine has been widely copied in various European countries, but its design was originated in America, the early Adams-Farwell engine being the pioneer form. It has been made in seven- and nine-cylinder types and forms of double these numbers. The engine ill.u.s.trated at Fig.

40 is a fourteen-cylinder form. The simple engines have an odd number of cylinders in order to secure evenly s.p.a.ced explosions. In the seven-cylinder, the impulses come 102.8 apart. In the nine-cylinder form, the power strokes are s.p.a.ced 80 apart. The fourteen-cylinder engine is virtually two seven-cylinder types mounted together, the cranks being just the same as in a double cylinder opposed motor, the explosions coming 51.4 apart; while in the eighteen-cylinder model the power impulses come every 40 cylinder travel. Other rotary motors have been devised, such as the Le Rhone and the Clerget in France and several German copies of these various types. The mechanical features of these motors will be fully considered later.

CHAPTER V

Properties of Liquid Fuels--Distillates of Crude Petroleum-- Principles of Carburetion Outlined--Air Needed to Burn Gasoline --What a Carburetor Should Do--Liquid Fuel Storage and Supply-- Vacuum Fuel Feed--Early Vaporizer Forms--Development of Float Feed Carburetor--Maybach's Early Design--Concentric Float and Jet Type--Schebler Carburetor--Claudel Carburetor--Stewart Metering Pin Type--Multiple Nozzle Vaporizers--Two-Stage Carburetor--Master Multiple Jet Type--Compound Nozzle Zenith Carburetor--Utility of Gasoline Strainers--Intake Manifold Design and Construction--Compensating for Various Atmospheric Conditions--How High Alt.i.tude Affects Power--The Diesel System-- Notes on Carburetor Installation--Notes on Carburetor Adjustment.

There is no appliance that has more material value upon the efficiency of the internal combustion motor than the carburetor or vaporizer which supplies the explosive gas to the cylinders. It is only in recent years that engineers have realized the importance of using carburetors that are efficient and that are so strongly and simply made that there will be little liability of derangement. As the power obtained from the gas-engine depends upon the combustion of fuel in the cylinders, it is evident that if the gas supplied does not have the proper proportions of elements to insure rapid combustion the efficiency of the engine will be low. When a gas engine is used as a stationary installation it is possible to use ordinary illuminating or natural gas for fuel, but when this prime mover is applied to automobiles or airplanes it is evident that considerable difficulty would be experienced in carrying enough compressed coal gas to supply the engine for even a very short trip.

Fortunately, the development of the internal-combustion motor was not delayed by the lack of suitable fuel.

Engineers were familiar with the properties of certain liquids which gave off vapors that could be mixed with air to form an explosive gas which burned very well in the engine cylinders. A very small quant.i.ty of such liquids would suffice for a very satisfactory period of operation.

The problem to be solved before these liquids could be applied in a practical manner was to evolve suitable apparatus for vaporizing them without waste. Among the liquids that can be combined with air and burned, gasoline is the most volatile and is the fuel utilized by internal-combustion engines.

The widely increasing scope of usefulness of the internal-combustion motor has made it imperative that other fuels be applied in some instances because the supply of gasoline may in time become inadequate to supply the demand. In fact, abroad this fuel sells for fifty to two hundred per cent. more than it does in America because most of the gasoline used must be imported from this country or Russia. Because of this foreign engineers have experimented widely with other substances, such as alcohol, benzol, and kerosene, but more to determine if they can be used to advantage in motor cars than in airplane engines.

DISTILLATES OF CRUDE PETROLEUM

Crude petroleum is found in small quant.i.ties in almost all parts of the world, but a large portion of that produced commercially is derived from American wells. The petroleum obtained in this country yields more of the volatile products than those of foreign production, and for that reason the demand for it is greater. The oil fields of this country are found in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio, and the crude petroleum is usually in a.s.sociation with natural gas. This mineral oil is an agent from which many compounds and products are derived, and the products will vary from heavy sludges, such as asphalt, to the lighter and more volatile components, some of which will evaporate very easily at ordinary temperatures.

The compounds derived from crude petroleum are composed princ.i.p.ally of hydrogen and carbon and are termed "Hydrocarbons." In the crude product one finds many impurities, such as free carbon, sulphur, and various earthy elements. Before the oil can be utilized it must be subjected to a process of purifying which is known as refining, and it is during this process, which is one of destructive distillation, that the various liquids are separated. The oil was formerly broken up into three main groups of products as follows: Highly volatile, naphtha, benzine, gasoline, eight to ten per cent. Light oils, such as kerosene and light lubricating oils seventy to eighty per cent. Heavy oils or residuum five to nine per cent. From the foregoing it will be seen that the available supply of gasoline is determined largely by the demand existing for the light oils forming the larger part of the products derived from crude petroleum. New processes have been recently discovered by which the lighter oils, such as kerosene, are reduced in proportion and that of gasoline increased, though the resulting liquid is neither the high grade, volatile gasoline known in the early days of motoring nor the low grade kerosene.

PRINCIPLES OF CARBURETION OUTLINED

The process of carburetion is combining the volatile vapors which evaporate from the hydrocarbon liquids with certain proportions of air to form an inflammable gas. The quant.i.ties of air needed vary with different liquids and some mixtures burn quicker than do other combinations of air and vapor. Combustion is simply burning and it may be rapid, moderate or slow. Mixtures of gasoline and air burn quickly, in fact the combustion is so rapid that it is almost instantaneous and we obtain what is commonly termed an "explosion." Therefore the explosion of gas in the automobile engine cylinder which produces the power is really a combination of chemical elements which produce heat and an increase in the volume of the gas because of the increase in temperature.

If the gasoline mixture is not properly proportioned the rate of burning will vary, and if the mixture is either too rich or too weak the power of the explosion is reduced and the amount of power applied to the piston is decreased proportionately. In determining the proper proportions of gasoline and air, one must take the chemical composition of gasoline into account. The ordinary liquid used for fuel is said to contain about eight-four per cent. carbon and sixteen per cent.

hydrogen. Air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen and the former has a great affinity, or combining power, with the two const.i.tuents of hydrocarbon liquids. Therefore, what we call an explosion is merely an indication that oxygen in the air has combined with the carbon and hydrogen of the gasoline.

AIR NEEDED TO BURN GASOLINE

In figuring the proper volume of air to mix with a given quant.i.ty of fuel, one takes into account the fact that one pound of hydrogen requires eight pounds of oxygen to burn it, and one pound of carbon needs two and one-third pounds of oxygen to insure its combustion. Air is composed of one part of oxygen to three and one-half portions of nitrogen by weight. Therefore for each pound of oxygen one needs to burn hydrogen or carbon four and one-half pounds of air must be allowed. To insure combustion of one pound of gasoline which is composed of hydrogen and carbon we must furnish about ten pounds of air to burn the carbon and about six pounds of air to insure combustion of hydrogen, the other component of gasoline. This means that to burn one pound of gasoline one must provide about sixteen pounds of air.

While one does not usually consider air as having much weight, at a temperature of sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit about fourteen cubic feet of air will weigh a pound, and to burn a pound of gasoline one would require about two hundred cubic feet of air. This amount will provide for combustion theoretically, but it is common practice to allow twice this amount because the element nitrogen, which is the main const.i.tuent of air, is an inert gas and instead of aiding combustion it acts as a deterrent of burning. In order to be explosive, gasoline vapor must be combined with definite quant.i.ties of air. Mixtures that are rich in gasoline ignite quicker than those which have more air, but these are only suitable when starting or when running slowly, as a rich mixture ignites much quicker than a weak mixture. The richer mixture of gasoline and air not only burns quicker but produces the most heat and the most effective pressure in pounds per square inch of piston top area.

The amount of compression of the charge before ignition also has material bearing on the force of the explosion. The higher the degree of compression the greater the force exerted by the rapid combustion of the gas. It may be stated that as a general thing the maximum explosive pressure is somewhat more than four times the compression pressure prior to ignition. A charge compressed to sixty pounds will have a maximum of approximately two hundred and forty pounds; compacted to eighty pounds it will produce a pressure of about three hundred pounds on each square inch of piston area at the beginning of the power stroke. Mixtures varying from one part of gasoline vapor to four of air to others having one part of gasoline vapor to thirteen of air can be ignited, but the best results are obtained when the proportions are one to five or one to seven, as this mixture is said to be the one that will produce the highest temperature, the quickest explosion, and the most pressure.

WHAT A CARBURETOR SHOULD DO

While it is apparent that the chief function of a carbureting device is to mix hydrocarbon vapors with air to secure mixtures that will burn, there are a number of factors which must be considered before describing the principles of vaporizing devices. Almost any device which permits a current of air to pa.s.s over or through a volatile liquid will produce a gas which will explode when compressed and ignited in the motor cylinder. Modern carburetors are not only called upon to supply certain quant.i.ties of gas, but these must deliver a mixture to the cylinders that is accurately proportioned and which will be of proper composition at all engine speeds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 41.--How Gravity Feed Fuel Tank May Be Mounted Back of Engine and Secure Short Fuel Line.]

Flexible control of the engine is sought by varying the engine speed by regulating the supply of gas to the cylinders. The power plant should run from its lowest to its highest speed without any irregularity in torque, i.e., the acceleration should be gradual rather than spasmodic.

As the degree of compression will vary in value with the amount of throttle opening, the conditions necessary to obtain maximum power differ with varying engine speeds. When the throttle is barely opened the engine speed is low and the gas must be richer in fuel than when the throttle is wide open and the engine speed high.

When an engine is turning over slowly the compression has low value and the conditions are not so favorable to rapid combustion as when the compression is high. At high engine speeds the gas velocity through the intake piping is higher than at low speeds, and regular engine action is not so apt to be disturbed by condensation of liquid fuel in the manifold due to excessively rich mixture or a superabundance of liquid in the stream of carbureted air.

LIQUID FUEL STORAGE AND SUPPLY

The problem of gasoline storage and method of supplying the carburetor is one that is determined solely by design of the airplane. While the object of designers should be to supply the fuel to the carburetor by as simple means as possible the fuel supply system of some airplanes is quite complex. The first point to consider is the location of the gasoline tank. This depends upon the amount of fuel needed and the s.p.a.ce available in the fuselage.